Variant texts of "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"

Dan Rabin · 08 Mar 2000, 20:04 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Dan Rabin <danrabin at a.crl.com>
Subject: (urth) Variant texts of "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 20:04:35
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Micheal Andre-Driussi writes,

>I vaguely remember some talk about possible diffs between "5HC" novella in
>ORBIT and 5HC, but I can't recall if it was just speculation or somebody
>had actually gotten down to doing the work of looking.

That was me, too.  The Gene-Wolfe-three-novellas editions have a brief
passage in the scene in the library in which the narrator finds an edition
of the short stories of Vernor Vinge.  This passage is absent in the
original _Orbit_ version.

>Wow, great detective work!

Not really--I just happen in both cases to have read the version with the
added passage, then the shorter version, and noted the absence of something
memorable (to me, at any rate).  This shouldn't be mistaken for scholarship!

The reason I have a bunch of old SF anthologies is that I decided at one
point to start reading Wolfe stories in their original surroundings when I
encountered them in used book stores.  This was at a point where I hadn't
really read much SF except for old Clarke and Asimov, and Gene Wolfe.

There are, of course, several Wolfe stories that have never been collected
in a single-author anthology.  The ones I've encountered are "A Method Bit
in 'B'" and "Going to the Beach", and some of the ones from the last few
years.  I recall someone posting a pointer to list, I think.

  -- Dan Rabin

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